Take a look at a recent map view of my visitors from the UK. Each orange spot represents a different UK user – who, if is not already a ferret owner, is interested in them.

Thanks for stopping by UK chums !

Oh yeah, most of them will tell you they are ferret owners because of the love of the wonderful little creatures. NOT because of Madonna and Paris Hilton as was once reported.

How many ferrets are too many?

It seems that an animal lover with a huge heart got in over their head in Springdale, Washington – and became a ferret hoarder.

After realizing that they could not handle all 90 ferrets, the ferret loving fanatic turned over 45 of them to Ferret Haven of Spokane, Washington and then the other 45 to another rescue in Northern Idaho.

My heart is breaking over the 15 ferrets that had to be put down as well as the others in need of a good home.

As you can imagine, the shelter is working on a limited budget where shelter, food and veterinary care bills can be overwhelming. If you can help in any way, I enourage you to contact them.

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Ferret Haven of Spokane
2411 West Rowan Avenue
…Spokane, WA 99205-5734
…
OR to relieve some of the astronomical vet bills totaling in the thousands:

Peone Pines Animal Hospital
Phone: 1-509-466-7115
Fax: 1-509-468-8044
14717 Newport Highway
Mead, WA 99021
Acct# 5735

Bailey

I am pleased to announce the newest member of our brood …. Bailey. Bailey came to us as a rescue, and is a great addition. This poor gal was caged most of the time and her owner (mom and daughter) just couldn’t give her the attention and roaming time that she deserved.

Unselfishly, they gave her up for adoption instead of enduring a life of caged boredom. She (we think) is less than 1 year old and in fine health.

However, this gal is EXTREMELY skiddish. She is very quick to run and hide as soon as she is spotted. I’m not sure where this is coming from – but possibly because she has always lived alone and there is just simply so much going on around her now. She has a very sweet side and will sometimes cuddle on our lap and sleep for an hour or two (on the rare times she calms down).

I’m sure things will work out well, and we love her !

If anyone has some advice on getting her out of her scared little “shell”, I’d love to hear suggestions.

I received a call from Keith, a member of the community who had seen my flyers posted in the neighborhood. He was aware of the fact that a friend’s neighbor named Dave had spotted a ferret in his backyard one evening about a week ago.

Evidently, this ferret had been chasing his two large dogs around the backyard. When he opened his sliding glass doors, the dogs bolted inside, running for their lives. The neighbor, unsure of what to do with this animal he had never seen before. Shut the glass door in front of it.

When I heard about this story, my emotions went nuts. Could Zoey still be alive, getting by on fortuitous luck with shelter and food ? Why couldn’t he have just picked her up ? Or better yet, call the police ? … in which case animal control would have her by now. Zoey loved our two dogs at home and would probably recognize other dogs as playmates. This was breaking my heart.

I immediately rushed over to talk to the home owner but he was not home at the time of my visit. So, I hung many more flyers in the neighborhood and went to bed. This morning, I traveled back to the neighborhood to talk to the owner. Luckily, this time he was home. I was surprised as he told this story but unbelievably, even more surprised that he had captured a picture of the event before the ferret disappeared into the night.

We hooked up his camera and laptop and started browsing pictures. I was nervous as Zoey’s picture was about to load. Was she going to be skinny, starved and weathered ? The butterflies in my stomach only lasted a minute or two because as soon as the photo loaded, I recognized the animal as a white skunk. The butterflies turned into a big sinking knot of a feeling that I am too familiar with.

Dave’s visitor was an unusual skunk. Take a look at the photo on this page to see what I mean. I had never seen a white skunk before and neither had Dave. BTW, Dave had never seen a ferret before as well. Attached to this story is a pic that I downloaded from the Internet but is identical to the picture that Dave owns.

Everything is now back to how it was a few days ago. I hope that Zoey has found a home somewhere but at the very least, I hope that she had a peaceful passing and trip to the Rainbow Bridge.

At the risk of creating a rift between the Evolutionists and Creationists on this site, I’d like to comment on a recent article that caught my interest.

Modern science has taught us that all mammals on the Earth are related and share common ancestry. Of course, just how far back in time the family tree forked depends upon the classifications of the Family of the species within the Mammalia classes that are being compared.

Hold Everything, Stop the Presses !

I just love to hear stories about the antics of frisky ferrets.

A ferret on the loose in Eynsham, UK, managed to bring an entire factory to its knees. It seems that somebody’s lost furry found it’s way on to the factory floor of Oxfordshire Print. After being spotted by some startled workers the ferret scurried under a printing press.

Yesterday, I wrote about how I was bitten by a ferret that I was adopting. Today, I was bitten by a mink. The bite spot is very near the spot that I was bitten by the ferret. It seems that my left hand is really taking a beating this week. I’m imagining my doctors’ stare if/when I report this. I guess I have to since this bite has the potential to be a bit more serious. I don’t want to gamble with rabies no matter how small the odds.

How did this happen ?

This weekend, I picked up Duke and Daisy. They were 2 ferrets that were surrendered to me by a loving family. You can meet them on our current ferret page.

I had brought Dino along to meet these ferrets prior to adopting them – as a personality compatibility test. Just before entering the house, Dino had been rubbing up against my legs/ankles. This may be related to what happens next.

As I enter the home, hand Dino over to a person and take a seat on the couch – Daisy runs straight over to me and bites me on the calf. What the hell ? I gently scruff her and push her away. She runs back to my calf and bites me harder. I scruff her harder with my right hand and go to release her from my calf with my left hand. What does she do ? She releases my calf and chomps down on my left hand. I scruff her harder, she bites me harder – unwilling to let go. She bit me so hard that she draws blood from all 4 teeth marks.

Finally, I get her to release her jaws and I continue to scruff, pinning her to the floor for a few seconds. This did the trick and the episode was over.

I wonder if Dino’s scent on my calf (plus my response) triggered her actions? I guess I’ll never know. Something caused her to bite me harder than any other ferret has bitten me.

Despite this brutal meeting, everything went fine after. Daisy is actually quite loving and nothing similar to this has occurred again. I have since welcomed Daisy and Duke into our home but will remain cautious as she meets strangers in the future.

Well, it has been over a week and no signs of Zoey. Dino keeps looking for her and we are all heartbroken.  However, I received a call this week from a nice couple who needed to surrender 2 ferrets. I picked them up tonight and will introduce them shortly. When Zoey returns, she will have 2 more playmates.

Well, day 3 has come and gone. I received 1 phone call about a “possible ferret sighting” yesterday evening. So, that information was 12 hours old. Some guys thought they spotted a ferret running along a row of bushes. I checked it out…no Zoey.

I then posted about 300 signs within the neighboring blocks of these bushes and have the entire neighborhood looking out for her. But with no leads, I’m losing hope . I did cross paths with some really energetic 10 year old girls named Alissa and Olivia. They are peddling around the neighborhood, full of spunk and ambition to find Zoey. I really hope that they do. Besides the girls, I have met many other pet lovers who offered to leave out food and water overnight. I guess there really are some good souls left out there. These good souls make up for the guy that thought I was a door-to-door solicitor at first, started to close his door, then I showed him a flyer, mentioned that I lost a pet, and his reply was “Don’t care” as he slammed the door shut. If anyone needs a target for pre-Halloween Devil’s night antics, I know his address. Just Kidding. Sort of.

By nightfall, the owner of the property with the row of bushes called to tell me to come on to her property any time. So, tonight I left some food, water and Zoey’s traveling tote – just in case she is around. However, the same lady told me that cats frequently use the row of bushes for a crossing. So, I can only question the possible ferret sighting on that exact spot on the night prior.

This is all so gut wrenching…. maybe tomorrow will be better.